1

Making Moments Meaningfulin Child & Youth Care Practice

2nd Edi tion

Ed ited by

Thom Garfat, Ph.D

Leon C. Fulcher, Ph.D

John Digney, Ph.D

THE CYC-NET PRESS

Making Moments Meaningful in Child & Youth Care Practice

Ed i tors

Thom Garfat Ph.D, Leon C. Fulcher Ph.D, John Digney Ph.D

2nd Edition

Copy right © 2019

ISBN 978-0-6399718-2-7

All rights re served. No part of this pub li ca tion may be re pro duced or trans mit tedin any form or by any means, elec tronic or me chan i cal, in clud ing pho tog ra phy,re cord ing, or any in for ma tion stor age or re trieval sys tem, with out per mis sion in writ ing from the pub lish ers. The book is sold sub ject to the con di tion that itshall not, by way of trade, or oth er wise, be lent, re sold, or oth er wise cir cu latedwith out the pub lisher’s prior con sent in any form of bind ing or cover other than that in which it is pub lished and with out a sim i lar con di tion, in clud ing this con -di tion, being im posed on the sub se quent pur chaser.

An im print of Pre text Pub lish ing

PO Box 23199, Clare mont 7735, Cape Town, South Af rica

http://press.cyc-net.org

info@press.cyc-net.org

ii

Read ings

Making Moments Meaningful in Daily Life / v

The Mean ing ful Use of Ev ery day Life Events in

Child & Youth Care (Re vised) / 1

Thom Garfat

Characteristics of a Relational Child and Youth Care Approach

(Revisited) / 6

Thom Garfat, James Free man, Kiaras Gharabaghi and Leon Fulcher

Purposeful Use of Daily Life Events in Care / 45

Leon Fulcher

Reflections on Daily Life Events in Child and Youth Care / 50

James Free man

Exploring self to be with other: Relationship in action / 57

Grant Charles and Thom Garfat

“If I’da thrown that chair at you, it woulda hit you’: Seeing difficult

behaviors through the lens of meaning and resilience / 74

Steph a nie Brockett and Ben An der son-Nathe

Sitting with Jason / 82

Thom Garfat

It’s Only a Matter of Time: Cross-Cultural Reflections / 89

Leon Fulcher

Daily Life Events in the context of CYC education / 102

Kelly Shaw, Jeff Reid and Jacolyn Trites

The Use of Daily Life Events and an Ericksonian Utilisation

Approach / 110

Werner van der Westhuizen

iii

Becoming Present: the use of Daily Life Events in Fam ily Work / 118

Kiaras Gharabaghi

Re-Connect / 128

Thom Garfat and Leon Fulcher

Making Humour Meaningful in Child and Youth Care:

A Personal Reflection / 132

John Digney

‘Zoning In’ to Daily Life Events that Facilitate Therapeutic

Change in Child and Youth Care Practice / 138

Leon Fulcher

Love and the Child and Youth Care Relationship / 148

Mark Smith

It was one of those moments / 155

Thom Garfat

iv

Making Moments Meaningful inDaily Life

W elcome to our book about making moments mean ing ful

through the Pur pose ful Use of Daily Life Events©. Wel come

to the old, the up dated, the re vised and the new. We say

it like that be cause the use of daily life events has been around for a

long time and is con stantly being re vis ited or up dated and new

ideas emerge fre quently – see, for ex am ple the re vised ver sion of

the Char ac ter is tics of a Re la tional Child & Youth Care Ap proach

(Chap ter 2).

We be lieve that the pur pose ful use of daily life events, founded

in a Child & Youth Care Ap proach can help to re duce the amount

of time many young peo ple, fam i lies or oth ers have to live with the

cur rent pain in their lives.

The ques tions which un der lay the The Pur pose ful Use of Daily Life

Events are these:

• How do we make an ev ery day life event mean ing ful for a

young per son or other?

• How do we make what might oth er wise be an or di nary or

‘fleet ing’ mo ment into some thing mean ing ful in terms of

reach ing the goals we have es tab lished to gether to help

re duce the pain in their lives?

v

• How do we en sure that our best ef forts to make a sin gle

Mo ment or event, with this young per son is as help ful,

heal ing and pur pose fully mean ing ful as it can be?

Those are, in many ways, the ul ti mate ques tions for our work –

whether we name our selves as Child and Youth Care Worker,

Youth Worker, So cial Ped a gogue, So cial Care Worker or any one of

our nu mer ous dif fer ent ti tles. If we want to be as ef fec tive as we

can be and if we want to be as help ful as we can be in as sist ing a

young per son or other to move on to a place of less pain and trou -

ble, then we need to won der about how we can make the most of

every mo ment we have with her or him. After all, the lon ger it

takes, the lon ger they are in pain.

The ar ti cles in this book are in tended to ‘deepen’ your knowl -

edge in the areas of a Child and Youth Care Ap proach and the

Pur pose ful Use of Daily Life Events. In many ways this book con -

tains less than it could have be cause there is a wealth of

in for ma tion avail able to us on the im por tance and rel e vance of

using daily life events. Much ad di tional in for ma tion can be found

at the In ter na tional Child and Youth Care Net work

(https://www.cyc-net.org) from where some of the ma te ri als in this

book have been drawn.

We en cour age you to go there and ex plore even deeper this as -

pect of help ing trou bled young peo ple and their fam i lies.

So take your time, read, enjoy and make this read ing time a

mean ing ful mo ment for your self. After all, mean ing ful mo ments

are as im por tant for us as for any one.

Thom, John and Leon

2019

vi

1The Mean ing ful Use of Ev ery dayLife Events in Child & Youth Care(Re vised)

Thom Garfat

It seems un clear when the ex pres sion “the use of ev ery day life

events” first en tered the child and youth care lit er a ture. Prob a -

bly, like many things in our field, it slipped in si lently like a kid

un sure if she be longed. Yet this ex pres sion suc ceeded in cap tur ing

the heart of child and youth. In deed, it has come to be the most de -

fin ing char ac ter is tic of what we call a Child and Youth Care

ap proach (see chapter 2 of this book). Sim i lar ex pres sions have ap -

peared from time to time, as oth ers have ex pressed the idea that

child and youth care in volves, as Fritz Redl (1959) said, ‘ex ploit ing’

the events that occur dur ing the daily life of a child in care, for the

ben e fit of that child (Fox, 1995). Redl’s ex pres sion was not readily

in cor po rated into the field, prob a bly be cause of the po lit i cal as so ci -

a tions at tached to the word ‘ex ploit ing’. Redl, of course, was

talk ing about tak ing ad van tage of events, as they occur in the life

space of the child. While the words may not have caught on, the

idea cer tainly did. Just as the def i ni tion of child and youth care has

come to in clude ‘the re la tional’ (Bellefeuille & Ricks, 2008; Garfat &

Fulcher, 2012) and the mean ing of ‘life-space’ has changed

1

(Gharabaghi & Stu art, 2013) so has the mean ing of the phrase ‘daily

life events’. Whereas it used to refer pri mar ily to what we might

call the rou tines and rit u als of ev ery day life (meals, bed times, etc.),

it has come to refer to all the mo ments which occur in the

life-space. This ‘idea’ has been evolv ing over time.

Maier (1987) en cour aged us to at tend to and use ‘the mi nu tiae’

of ev ery day life, the lit tle things, the small, seem ingly un im por tant

events out of which the days of our lives are con structed: things

like wait ing for meal-times, oc ca sions of leave-tak ing, or just sim -

ply com ing into con tact with one an other. Fol low ers of Redl

sug gest the use of life space in ter views in which the care worker

takes ad van tage of a sin gu lar event or mo ment (such as an ar gu -

ment be tween two youth) as it is oc cur ring or im me di ately after it

oc curs, spe cif i cally en ter ing into the im me di ate life of the child

(Brendtro & Long, 2002). Pe ter son (1988) sug gested watch ing for

nat u rally oc cur ring ther a peu tic op por tu ni ties that pres ent them -

selves in the course of daily liv ing. Guttmann (1991) sug gested that

care work ers must enter into the flow of im me di a cies of the child’s

ex pe ri enc ing. In this way they can use in ter ven tions which are

con gru ent with the flow of that ex pe ri enc ing (Fulcher, 1991). En -

ter ing into this flow of ex pe ri enc ing as it is oc cur ring, and help ing

the child to live dif fer ently in the con text within which they find

them selves (Fewster, 1990), is cen tral to impactful child and youth

care prac tice. This focus on what we might call joint ex pe ri enc ing

be tween child and worker, and the fa cil i ta tion of the op por tu nity

for change within this joint ex pe ri enc ing high lights the com monly

iden ti fied CYC char ac ter is tic of ‘do ing with’. In many ways, it is

what dis tin guishes our work from the interventive ef forts of other

pro fes sion als. In impactful child and youth care prac tice, the

worker be comes, with the child, the co-cre ator of a ther a peu tic

con text (Durrant, 1993; Maier, 1994; Pe ter son, 1988) within which

the child might ex pe ri ence the op por tu nity for change. This focus

on the joint ex pe ri enc ing of what Garfat (2008) called the in-be -

tween be tween us is the es sence of con tem po rary, re la tional Child

and Youth Care Prac tice (Garfat & Fulcher, 2012) for it is through

the ev ery day mo ments and op por tu ni ties that we might find the

path way to the cre ation of the truly re la tional ex pe ri ence. Re cent

2

writ ings have dem on strated the use of daily life events in ed u ca -

tion, train ing, su per vi sion, fam ily work com mu nity and many

other areas. Fur ther, as Gharabaghi (2013) sug gests, we are even

find ing ways to be pres ent in the ev ery day mo ments of peo ples’

lives when we are not ‘phys i cally there’. Build ing on our pow er ful

his tory, we are find ing ways to make all mo ments mean ing ful.

Re quire ments

Child and youth care prac tice has evolved over time, and the ex -

pres sion ‘the use of daily life events’ might be re phrased as ‘the

en ter ing into, and pur pose ful use of, daily life events, as they are

oc cur ring, for the ben e fit of the child, youth or fam ily’. Such prac -

tice in volves nu mer ous skills, knowl edge and abil ity on the part of

child and youth care work ers. They must, for ex am ple,

• have knowl edge of child de vel op ment (Maier, 1987),

• un der stand how to ac cess and use that knowl edge

(Eisikovits, Beker, & Guttmann, 1991),

• know about the pro cess of change (Garfat, Fulcher &

Digney, 2019),

• pos sess an ac tive self-aware ness which al lows the worker

to dis tin guish self from other (Garfat, 1994; Ricks, 1989),

• be able to enter into an in ti mate car ing re la tion ship (Aus tin

& Halpin, 1987, 1989) that in volves at tach ment (Maier,

1993) and be long ing (Brendtro, Brokenleg & Van Bockern,

2002),

• un der stand the pro cess of mean ing-mak ing (Bruner, 1990;

Krueger, 1994; VanderVen, 1992),

• have a frame work for or ga niz ing their interventive ac tions

(Eisikovits, Beker, & Guttmann, 1991; Garfat & Newcomen,

1992),

• un der stand the mean ing and dy nam ics of re la tional prac tice

(Garfat & Fulcher, 2012). un der stand how re la tion ships

cre ate the life-space (Gharabaghi & Stu art, 2013),

• un der stand and be able to live the char ac ter is tics of Re la tional

Child & Youth Care Prac tice (this book, Chap ter 2)

3

All of this is nec es sary for re cog nis ing, using or even cre at ing

op por tu ni ties in the daily life events of a child, youth or fam ily’s

life. The use of daily life events as they are oc cur ring is one of the

foun da tional char ac ter is tics that dis tin guish child and youth care

prac tice from other forms of help ing — which may also use daily

life events, but at a dis tance re moved from the im me di acy of the

ex pe ri ence it self.

The child and youth care focus on mak ing ev ery day mo ments

mean ing ful and ther a peu tic has been one of the most pro found

evo lu tions of our field and the more we focus on mak ing mo ments

mean ing ful in this way, the more help ful we will be to the young

peo ple and fam i lies with whom we work.

ReferencesAustin, D., & Halpin, W (1987). Seeing “I to I”: A phenomenological analysis of

the caring relationship. Journal of Child and Youth Care, 3(3), 37-42.

Austin, D., & Halpin, W (1989). The caring response. Journal of Child and Youth

Care, 4(3), 1-7.

Brendtro,L. K., Brokenleg, M. & Van Bockern, S. (2002). Reclaiming youth at risk:

Our hope for the future (2nd. ed.). Bloomington, IL: Solution Tree.

Brendtro, L. K. & Long, N.J. (2002). Controls from Within: The Enduring Challenge.

Reclaiming Children and Youth 11(1), Spring 2002, 5-9.

Bruner, J. (1990). Acts of Meaning. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.

Durrant, M. (1993). Residential treatment: A cooperative, competency-based approach

to therapy and program design. New York: WW Norton.

Eisikovits, Z., Beker, J., & Guttman, E. (1991). The known and the used in

residential child and youth care work. In J. Beker & Z. Eisikovits (Eds.),

Knowledge utilization in residential child and youth care practice (pp. 3-23).

Washington, DC: Child Welfare League of America.

Fewster, G. (1990). Being in child care: A journey into self. New York: Haworth

Press.

Fox, L. (1995). Exploiting daily events to heal the pain of sexual abuse. Journal of

Child and Youth Care, 10(2), 33-42.

Fulcher, L. (1991). Teamwork in residential care. In J. Beker & Z. Eisikovits

(Eds.), Knowledge utilization in residential child and youth care practice (pp. 2

15-235). Washington, DC: Child Welfare League of America.

4

Garfat, T. (1994). Never alone: Reflections on the presence of self and history on

child and youth care. Journal of Child and Youth Care Work, 9(1), 35-43.

Garfat, T. (2008). The interpersonal in-between: An exploration of relational

child and youth care practice. In G. Bellefuille & F. Ricks (Eds), pp 7-34.

Standing on the Precipice. Edmonton: Macwen Press.

Garfat, T., Digney, J. & Fulcher. L.C. (2012). The Therapeutic use of Daily Life

Events (dle) training manual.

Garfat, T. & Fulcher, L. (2012). Child & Youth Care in Practice. Cape Town: Pretext

Publishing.

Garfat, T., & Newcomen, T. (1992). AS*IF: A model for child and youth care

interventions. Child and Youth Care Forum, 21(4), 277-285.

Gharabaghi, K. (2013). Becoming present: The use of daily life events in family

work. In T. Garfat, L.C. Fulcher & J. Digney (eds.), Making moments

meaningful in child and youth care practice (pp.107-117). Cape Town:

Pretext Publishing.

Gharabaghi, K. & Stuart, C. (2013). Right here, right now: exploring life-space

interventions for children and youth. Toronto: Pearson.

Guttman, E. (1991). Immediacy in residential child and youth care work: The

fusion of experience, self-consciousness, and action. In J. Beker & Z.

Eisikovits (Eds.), Knowledge utilization in residential child and youth care

practice (pp. 65-84). Washington, DC: Child Welfare League of America.

Krueger, M. (1994). Rhythm and presence: Connecting with children on the

edge. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Problems, 3(1), 49-51.

Maier, H.W (1987). Developmental group care for children and youth: Concepts and

practice. New York: Haworth.

Maier, H.W (1993). Attachment development is “in”. Journal of Child and Youth

Care, 9(1), 35-52.

Maier, H.W (1994). A therapeutic environmental approach. Research and

Evaluation, 3(2), 3-4

Peterson, R. (1988). The collaborative metaphor technique: Using Ericsonian

(Milton H.) techniques and principles in child, family and youth care

work. Journal of Child Care, 3(4), 11-27.

Redl, F. (1959). Strategy and technique of the Life-Space interview. American

Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 29, 1-18.

Ricks, F. (1989). Self-awareness model for training and application in child and

youth care. Journal of Child and Youth Care, 4(1), 33-42.

VanderVen, K. (1992). From the side of the swimming pool and the evolving

story of child and youth care work. Journal of Child and Youth Care Work,

8, 5-6.

5

6

2Characteristics of a RelationalChild and Youth Care Approach(Revisited)

Thom Garfat, James Freeman, Kiaras Gharabaghi and Leon Fulcher

In tro duc tion

A Brief His tory of the Char ac ter is tics

In 2004, Garfat (2004a) iden ti fied char ac ter is tics, drawn from re -

search, clas sic and con tem po rary lit er a ture and his and oth ers’

ex pe ri ence of the field, which were thought to iden tify a Child and

Youth Care (CYC) ap proach to car ing. These char ac ter is tics were

up dated by Fulcher and Garfat (2008) when writ ing about their ap -

pli ca bil ity in fos ter care and then again in a re view of ap pli ca tions

of a re la tional Child and Youth Care ap proach in a spe cial issue of

the Re la tional Child and Youth Care Prac tice jour nal (2011). These ap -

pli ca tions were fur ther de vel oped in Mak ing Mo ments Mean ing ful in

CYC Prac tice (Garfat, Fulcher & Digney, 2013), in Child and Youth

Care in Prac tice (Garfat & Fulcher, 2012), and in Child and Youth Care

Prac tice with Fam i lies (Fulcher & Garfat, 2015). Sub se quent writ ings

ex pressed how the char ac ter is tics were ap pli ca ble to spe cific prac -

tices of su per vi sion (Charles, Free man & Garfat, 2016) and trauma

re spon sive care (Free man, 2015a). These char ac ter is tics are again

up dated and pre sented here based on read ings, work shops,

con fer ences, dis cus sions and in sights drawn from the field in the

past few years.

About this Re vi sion

This up dated ver sion of the 25 char ac ter is tics rep re sents a sig -

nif i cant en hance ment from pre vi ous ver sions. It ac knowl edges

and in cludes many sig nif i cant voices that are im por tant to the

field. It also ac knowl edges that the field of Child and Youth Care

has, over a pe riod of de cades, been com pla cent in its ap proach to

cen ter ing the lived ex pe ri ences of In dig e nous, racialized, non-bi -

nary gendered, neuro-di verse bod ies, pre sent ing in stead a list of

char ac ter is tics that can be read as fun da men tally ‘white’, ablelist,

and heteronormative (Gharabaghi, 2016; Vachon, 2018,

Skott-Myhre, 2017). We have also learned a lot about the ef fects of

trauma on young peo ple, in clud ing gen er a tional trauma as well as

abuse and ne glect.

This new ver sion of the 25 char ac ter is tics is not a cri tique of pre -

vi ous ver sions; it is in stead a way of re-contextualizing the

char ac ter is tics within lived ex pe ri ences and intersectionalities in

an ef fort to pro vide a foun da tion (al beit one in need of con stant

growth and ad ap ta tion) for Child and Youth Care prac tice mov ing

for ward. Col lec tively, we set out to reimagine the 25 char ac ter is tics

by en gag ing over 100 Child and Youth Care in volved peo ple

(broadly de fined) from North Amer ica and the Ca rib bean, Af rica,

Asia, Aus tra lia and Eu rope in order to open di a logue among dif fer -

ently lo cated and po si tioned in di vid u als to re flect on the

char ac ter is tics and pro vide sug ges tions for ren der ing these com -

men su rate with the many dif fer ent ways peo ple are con nected to

the field. Through this pro cess, the 25 char ac ter is tics were re -

viewed by in di vid u als with long stand ing in volve ment in the field

and its com mu nity, as well as by many in di vid u als think ing and

writ ing from per spec tives and with iden ti ties re flect ing var i ous

con texts in clud ing trauma, mul ti ple ra cial, gen der, abil ity/dis abil -

ity, sex ual ori en ta tion, and class positions.

In re flect ing on the feed back we re ceived, we must first ex press

how grate ful we are that so many in di vid u als pro vided de tailed,

7

se ri ous, mean ing ful sug ges tions for shift ing the nu ances and the

scope of the 25 char ac ter is tics to such an in clu sive and rel e vant

space. We are es pe cially grate ful for the feed back from in di vid u als

who have long en coun tered bar ri ers, some times in vis i ble to us, in

at tempt ing to ac cess this field and the com mu nity that comes with

it. We are equally grate ful for the ex pres sion of rel e vance and mean -

ing that these char ac ter is tics have in such di verse ge og ra phies,

ex pe ri ences and cul tural spaces. We heard about how these char ac -

ter is tics have been help ful in Isibindi pro jects in South Af rica, in

res i den tial set tings across Can ada, in post-sec ond ary ed u ca tion set -

tings in Eu rope, North Amer ica and Af rica, and in com mu nity-based

child and youth care ser vices in Aus tra lia and Asia. We learned that

the field, broadly de fined, is fun da men tally in ter ested in con tin u ing

dis cus sions and ex plo ra tion of the fol low ing themes:

• The role of power em bed ded in rac ist ide ol o gies, state and

in sti tu tional struc tures, and cul tural he ge mo nies;

• A crit i cal per spec tive on the uni ver sal ity of core con cepts,

in clud ing care, love and re la tional practice;

• The im por tance of his tor i cal events and prac tices and their

con nec tion to gen er a tional and on-going trauma;

• Ac knowl edg ing, es pe cially in Can ada, the United States

and Aus tra lia, In dig e nous ways of know ing, ex pe ri enc ing,

and sharing;

• Fram ing Child and Youth Care prac tice as an ap proach

rather than a rig idly de fined pro fes sional prac tice with

im pen e tra ble bor ders for in di vid u als and groups of peo ple

with dif fer ent lived ex pe ri ences based on race, gen der,

abil ity/dis abil ity and other cri te ria.

We also learned about, and are pleased to ex press our com mit ment

to, the need for on-going re flec tion on, and re vi sion of, these 25 char ac -

ter is tics, al ways with the voices of di verse in di vid u als and groups as

8

part ners. In many re spects, we (the au thors) do not own these char ac -

ter is tics. They be long to our di verse field and the peo ple who are

draw ing on these char ac ter is tics as a way of being in the world.

De fin ing a Re la tional Child and Youth Care Ap proachWe be lieve that Child and Youth Care prac ti tio ners are ide ally

sit u ated to be among the most in flu en tial of heal ers and help ers in

a per son or fam ily’s life. For many years, the work that Child and

Youth Care prac ti tio ners do was con sid ered, at best, a sub-pro fes -

sion and the work ers them selves were fre quently con sid ered to be

ex ten sions of other help ing pro fes sion als, most com monly So cial

Work ers (Garfat & Charles, 2010). How ever, with the pas sage of

time and the evo lu tion of a dis tinct ap proach to prac tice, Child and

Youth Care (CYC)1 and CYC prac ti tio ners, like so cial ped a gogues

in Eu rope and child care work ers in South Af rica, have come to be

rec og nized as pos sess ing a spe cific ex per tise and a unique ap -

proach to work ing with chil dren, youth and fam i lies (Fulcher &

Garfat, 2015; Mann-Feder, Scott, & Hardy, 2017; Thumbadoo, 2008)

in volv ing a “com pre hen sive frame work for being with young peo -

ple in relational and authentic ways” (Gharabaghi, 2017a, p. 5).

A CYC prac ti tio ner’s po si tion in the daily life of an other per son,

and/or their fam ily and com mu nity, al lows the prac ti tio ner to in -

ter vene proactively, re spon sively and im me di ately to as sist oth ers

to de velop dif fer ent ways of act ing and ex pe ri enc ing in the world

(Fulcher & Garfat, 2008). There is no other form of help ing which is

so im me di ate, so grounded in the pres ent ex pe ri enc ing or, one

might say, so ev ery day. This im me di acy of being pres ent as help ers

cre ates in-the-mo ment learn ing op por tu ni ties (Ward, 1998) al low -

ing the in di vid ual to ex per i ment with al ter na tive ways of act ing

and ex pe ri enc ing as they are liv ing their lives. CYC prac tice is not

ori ented around tem po rally spaced and in fre quent vis its to an

9

1 The term Child and Youth Care (CYC) is used here in both the spe cific andge neric sense. While it does refer to those prac ti tio ners in a va ri ety ofcoun tries who carry the title of CYC worker, it also re fers to those whomight prac tice within a Child and Youth Care frame work but be iden ti fiedwith dif fer ent ti tles such as youth worker, so cial ped a gogue, res i den tialso cial worker, and across mul ti ple set tings.

of fice where the ‘cli ent’ meets with a ther a pist who has lit tle to no

ex pe ri ence of the in di vid ual’s ex pe ri ences in ev ery day life. Rather,

it is based on being in-the-mo ment with the in di vid ual(s), ex pe ri -

enc ing their life and liv ing with it them as it un folds (Baizerman,

1999; Winfield, 2008), within an in clu sive, rights-based, anti-op -

pres sive and trauma-in formed frame work that ex tends from the

na ture of inter-per sonal re la tions to the en gage ment of sys temic

and in sti tu tional fea tures of in jus tice (Dan iel, 2016). Child and

youth care prac tice seeks to avoid the pit falls of being with oth ers

as framed el o quently by Hooks (2000): “When we face pain in re la -

tion ships, our first re sponse is to sever bonds rather than to

main tain com mit ment.” We re mem ber, al ways, that young people

are the authors of their own story (history) and, ultimately, the

agents of their own change (Gharabaghi & Stuart, 2011).

Child and Youth Care prac tice is based on help ing peo ple think

about and live their life dif fer ently, as they are liv ing it (Free man,

2015b; Garfat, 2002). It is a fo cused, timely, prac ti cal and, above all,

im me di ately re spon sive form of car ing which uses “ap plied learn -

ing and daily uses of knowl edge to in form more re spon sive daily

en coun ters with chil dren or young peo ple” (Fulcher 2004, p. 34). It

is im me di ate and fo cused on the mo ment as it is oc cur ring. It al -

lows for the in di vid ual to learn, ex pe ri ence and prac tice dif fer ent

thoughts, feel ings and ac tions in the most im por tant area of their

lives – daily life as they are living it (Gannon, 2014; Mucina, 2012).

We rec og nize that be com ing in volved in a per son’s or fam ily’s

life is more than an inter-per sonal pro cess; it re quires an en gage -

ment with the con text of his tory and its con se quences, in clud ing,

for ex am ple, the his to ries of res i den tial schools and deeply em bed -

ded bi ases im pact ing In dig e nous com mu ni ties across North

Amer ica, as well as anti-Black rac ism, gen der normativity, sex ual

con ser va tism, neuro-di ver sity and other his to ries of op pres sion

and rac ism around the world. Still we be lieve that Child and Youth

Care prac ti tio ners are ide ally sit u ated to im pact the cir cum stances

of young peo ple, their fam i lies and their com mu ni ties pre cisely be -

cause CYC prac tice of fers a unique way of being in the world, and

there fore of being with young peo ple, their fam i lies, and their

communities in the context of their present situation.

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The Char ac ter is tics as a Frame work for Prac ticeThe di a gram below (Free man & Garfat, 2014) shows how these

char ac ter is tics of a Child and Youth Care ap proach are ar ranged

around the pur pose ful use of daily life events and grouped ac cord -

ing to pro cesses of Being, In ter pret ing and Doing (Free man &

Garfat, 2014). These char ac ter is tics are foun da tional to our way of

being, in ter pret ing and doing in our work, wher ever our work is

lo cated. They char ac ter ize the Child and Youth Care way of being

in the world with other(s).

This ap proach out lined by these char ac ter is tics aims for in clu -

sive ness, an eq ui ta ble join ing to gether of all who par tic i pate in the

field. Thus, one might be, for ex am ple, a Child and Youth Care

worker, a CYC in struc tor, a fam ily worker, a trainer, a youth ad vo -

cate, a com mu nity de vel op ment worker, a re searcher, a

su per vi sor, etc. What binds them to gether, as CYC prac ti tio ners, is

the shared ap proach to their work. Thus, CYC prac ti tio ners are

con nected by how they think about and carry out their work. Child

and Youth Care is, after all, an ‘ap proach’ or a way of being in the

world with oth ers. So, we aim here to be in clu sive while ac knowl -

edg ing the his toric con text of trauma, power, and ‘priv i lege and

cul tural sin gu lar ity’ (Gharabaghi, 2017b) which is the his tory of our

field. In deed, as Skott-Myhre said, all of us “need to seek to be ac -

count able to our priv i lege in real and ma te rial ways” (2017, p. 17)

and rec og nize the po lit i cal as pects of our work.

The 25 char ac ter is tics of re la tional Child and Youth Care Prac -

tice are not in tended to cap ture, for ex am ple, the lim it ing world of

in sti tu tional care and tra di tional des ig na tions within the pro fes -

sional field of Child and Youth Care. They are, quite to the

con trary, meant to re flect a par tic u lar ap proach to ‘be ing with’,

whether this is framed around euro-centric ideas of de vel op men tal

growth or, for ex am ple, In dig e nous ideas about the ‘Heal ing Path’

(McCabe, 2007). Ul ti mately, the Char ac ter is tics are about child and

youth care prac tice in the life-space and in the mo ment. They do

not rep re sent an anal y sis of so cial sys tems, in sti tu tions or pro -

cesses. They make no at tempt to com pre hen sively cap ture the

rich ness of lit er a ture that speaks to anti-op pres sive prac tices,

marginalization, sys tem change and ad vo cacy. And they are

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cer tainly not meant to pro vide a foun da tion for pol icy frame works.

The char ac ter is tics speak to how we are with young peo ple, in all

of their di ver sity and life ex pe ri ences, un der stand ing that peo ple’s

lives are very much im pacted by so cial struc tures, power re la tions,

racism, exclusion, marginalization and other dynamics.

Re la tional Child and Youth Care Prac tice

Re la tional Child and Youth Care prac tice is an ap proach in

which at ten tion is di rected to wards ‘the in-be tween be tween us’

(Garfat, 2008). As Bellefeuille and Jamie son noted “re la tional prac -

tice is a dy namic, rich, flex i ble, and con tin u ally evolv ing pro cess of

co-con structed in quiry. In this type of in quiry, mean ing emerges

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